On 08Jul2022 1855, kaladorn at gmail.com (via tml list) wrote:
> Here's another thought from the 1930s and before: My grandfather worked in
> a multi-story woolen mill. They had massive hydro resources so they had a
> drive shaft that fed many systems (probably several) and one of those
> systems was for getting between levels.  Here's how it worked:
>
> Imagine a drive pulley at the bottom in the underfloor on the first (or
> maybe basement) level. There's another pulley on the ceiling of the top
> level. Between these runs one massive belt. It was a massive leather belt
> with layers and cross stitching/lashing if I recall.
>
> How does that get you up and down?
>
> Every 2.5 m or so, there was an attachment riveted into the belt. That belt
> held a chunk of 5cmx15cm hardwood (I think that's about the size) about
> 30-36 cm perpendicular to the belt. The belt moved in one direction at a
> single speed all the time (barring shutdowns for some cause). So there were
> always steps moving up and steps on the other side coming down. At about
> the 2.1 m height from the step, a loop hung from the belt.
>
> Say you had 3 stories of 4m and a basement of 4m for a total of 16m (so
> roughly a 32m belt with 6 stairs with loop going up, 6 stairs coming down
> with loop.
>
> A worker would walk to the entry point on their level and watch carefully
> as the belt moved. It didn't move so fast you were likely to miss your
> step. You grabbed the loop with one hand as a holding strap for balance and
> stepped onto the step. You could be going up or down. When you started to
> pass a level's exit, you watched and stepped off onto that level.
>
> Now, I never saw it, but it worked for many workers for at least 7 decades.
> My grandfather ended up as the superintendent when the Germans bought it in
> the mid 1960s. These were a continuous belt lift - no stopping like in
> elevators if you hit the emerg stop button.
I've used something similar in my campaign. A space station or large
ship has a central tube, or pair of tubes (one for 'up', the other for
'down') in zero-g, and a looped cable with handholds spaced along it. It
runs continuously and you just enter the tube and grab on, letting go
and gabbing a handrail at your desired deck. Like a ski-tow, really.

The impatient types forgo the tow and 'free-fly' down the tubes, which
is fine and dandy until they hit someone on the tow and everyone goes
tumbling.

--
Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>